A Long Walk of Reflection

Last we left off, our troop of ragtag, thrown-together, circumstantial heroes and friends have been wandering the center of Issylra. It is here in the Demithore Valley, that they encountered a village beneath one of the nexus points of the (now seemingly continuous) Apogee Solstice, upon which you freed the local villagers of what seemed to be an oppressive influx of Dawnfather faith, the temple itself encroaching and pressing its will upon the people as well as the worship. Through relatively violent means, stormed the temple and helped them and the guardian spirits of the land (the eidolons) to destroy the temple and send the surviving faithful to the Dawnfather away, not to return.
In thanks, the people celebrated and the local elder, Abaddina, granted you some scrying of your requests before sending you onto the next leg of what you seek (which is a means to return home, or at least for some of you, return to the people that are your home). As part of that gift, Abaddina send a guide spirit (one of the smaller eidolons in the form of a wind cougar) that is guiding you towards your destination. An individual named Hevestro (the Hierophant of the Emerald Tree) that resides to the far north within the Irriam Canyon, told if you follow the precipice in the distance (of the Ascendant Bridge Mountain about four or five days' travel), you should reach the chasm that is the canyon. Within there a shrine awaits, surrounded by blue flora.
With that, you gathered your things, you've made the beginning of your journey early in the day, northward, back into the Serratus Wilderness here to seek whatever lies in front.

♪Episode Song References♪

ᕕ( ᐛ)ᕗ

• 01:08:09 The Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feelin
• 02:59:28 Freak Nasty - Da' Dip
• 03:22:30 Whitney Houston - Step By Step

Highlights

• 00:13:25 Wind cougar is Fran Drescher
• 00:16:49 Prism:"During the battle, I may or may not have 'baby-birded' blood from my raven familiar and then summoned a demon from Hell. If anyone wants to talk to me about that..."
• 00:20:05 Prism:"Anxiety is just excitement without the breath."
  Bor'dor:"Anxiety's just breath before fear."
• 00:21:06 Marisha's excited face for a pointless spell
• 00:22:41 Marisha:"We were doing a 'walk and talk'."
  Aimee:"An Aaron Sorkin walk and talk. Mr President!"
  Marisha:"We're West Wing-ing it."
  Utkarsh:"That was a long shot."
• 00:22:53 Guided by your eidolon (and you eventually move beyond the relative safety of the Outerwalk road and deeper into the northern Serratus Wilderness) this beautiful expanse of dense forest is occasionally broken by rolling hills and tall grass fields that sway in waves with the colder wind. Once you step within the canopies of the long-stretching forest that fill the majority of this valley, there's a dream-like hue of green amongst these shadowed paths and underbrush. It's vibrant and encompassing, leaving you feeling both welcomed, but also incredibly small within the vast unkempt timberland before you. The climbing hike is broken up occasionally with continuous peaks and valleys, and cluttered across the landscape of lush growth, rocky terrain, hidden rivers. The occasional summit breaks out of the forest canopy and you have a view of the surrounding valley itself, the distant mountain ranges that encompass it like the outside of a bowl. There, before you, the point you keep eyes on, the majestic dark monolith that is the Ascendant Bridge Mountain, looming northward.
• 00:24:24 Aimee:(faux British accent) "Oh no!" (sounds like ay nay)
• 00:26:26 Aimee:"I don't even know what that is and I am Not going to google Ambergris."
• 00:28:25 Taliesin:"Emily, stop making one-shots."
  Matt:"It's just me at the table at this point. I hate this idea."
  Aimee:"Just full Tyler Perry-ing yourself."
• 00:29:21 Dynios:"I regret everything that I have agreed to in the past half hour."
  Emily:"I'm in heaven."
  Aimee:"One man Hamlet."
• 00:31:59 Deni$e the rabbit hunter
  You coax it to you, in a friendly manner. It does not see you as a threat. As it leaps onto your lap (neck snapping mime).
  Aimee:"I wont be ignored, Dan." (Fatal Attraction reference)
• 00:38:20 Short jokes
• 00:48:15 Prism's inexperience with live magic is explained.
• 00:51:14 Orym:"There's no single way to cope with grief."
• 00:56:38 Bor'dor:"I'll take a mage whip-it."
• 01:05:45 They keep trying to talk to the wind cougar
• 01:13:35 This skeleton belonged to a Gith'zerai, one of the people that call the Astral Sea home.
• 01:17:12 Prism:"We really never talk about you. What did you do before you were trapped in a book?"
  Dynios:"Oh, I'm so glad you finally asked."
  Prism:"Actually, real quick. I just have to cast identify. We'll talk about it later."
• 01:22:31 Laudna:"You're getting read by a book."
• 01:23:23 Ashton pulls out his "feel good" pipe and asks if Prism smokes.
  Prism:"I'm a student. Of course I smoke."
• 01:24:03 Aimee:"Ar nar." (Oh no)
• 01:25:25 Emily:"You see this little tiny Prism go up and make herself indispensable to that mage to the point where (when the mage goes to leave) he invites her back to the Cobalt Soul...It's a really big deal to leave the Shadow Realm. It's really hard to leave and it's a really tough place. That is my most impressive achievement."
• 01:32:06 Famous cougars
• 02:05:11 Miracles with fish don't last.
  Deni$e:"Anybody want some fuckin' rabbit?"
  
• 02:14:59 Ashton:"...I can't walk away. I put too much into it now."
  Bor'Dor:"Sounds like a gambler's mentality."
  Laudna:"Time sunk fallacy."
  
  Sunk Cost Fallacy

  The sunk cost fallacy is a cognitive bias that makes you feel as if you should continue pouring money, time, or effort into a situation since you’ve already “sunk” so much into it already. This perceived sunk cost makes it difficult to walk away from the situation since you don’t want to see your resources wasted.
  When falling prey to sunk cost fallacy, “the impact of loss feels worse than the prospect of gain, so we keep making decisions based on past costs instead of future costs and benefits,” explains Yalda Safai, MD, MPH is a psychiatrist in New York City.
• 02:17:01 Prism:"I personally feel invigorated by this entire experience...it's probably just youthful optimism. Just kinda inflated with the sense that I could really make a difference, that maybe I'd be the person who read the text in the ancient tome that I stole from the restricted section that made sense of everything and then I could report it to people and everyone would have better information on which to act upon. I have to say, I'm glad to be here. I don't think that'll be like putting the knife in Ludinus' back or anything like that, but I do think that I have a narrow lane that could."
• 02:19:57 Liam imitates grindcore metal vocals
  Matt:"Yep, you got it."
  Emily:"That's undercommon."
• 02:20:39 Bor'Dor:"I don't understand you people. Give me your pipe."
  Ashton:"Done!"
• 02:23:46 Liam:"In the dead of night..."
  Aimee:"You want to fart?"
  Taliesin:(fart sounds)"That's our cougar."
  Orym:"Damn it, Kim Cattrall!"

INTERMISSION